Google to ditch older browsers

Google is phasing out support for older browsers from 1 August, according to the BBC.

Those using Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3, Firefox 3.5 and their predecessors to view Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites will then lose some functions. Eventually, it warned, these Web services will stop working for those sticking with older browsers.

The move is part of a trend to stop the use of ageing browsers, which can be insecure and not sophisticated enough to handle the latest Web technologies.

Internet access came back online in Syria on Saturday after two-thirds of networks in the country became unreachable from the rest of the world in the midst of street protests on Friday, reports Cnet.

As the strife-ridden country once again became visible to the online world, videos of snipers apparently firing on peaceful demonstrators began to surface.

According to Renesys, which monitors Internet connectivity, the country's 3G data network and other ISPs disappeared from the global network grid on Friday morning, but domains linked to the Syrian government remained online.

Nearly 180 passwords belonging to members of an Atlanta-based FBI affiliate have been stolen and leaked to the Internet, the group confirmed yesterday, reveals the Associated Press.

The logins belonged to members of the local chapter of InfraGard, a public-private partnership devoted to sharing information about threats to US physical and Internet infrastructure, the chapter's president said.

“Someone did compromise the Web site,” InfraGard Atlanta Members Alliance president Paul Farley said in a brief e-mail exchange. “We do not at this time know how the attack occurred or the method used to reveal the passwords.”

News last week that an arm of the World Health Organisation said cellphones might raise the risk of brain cancer has been greeted by Americans mostly with a shrug of the shoulder - one that's pinning a cellphone to the ear, says the Associated Press.

Google searches for “cancer” and “cellphones” spiked this week. And some people vowed to get headsets to shield themselves from radiation.

But most seemed to either dismiss the warning as too vague, or reason that if the most useful device in modern life poses a slight health risk, then so be it.